Eurnova, the owner of the land on which the Stadio della Roma had been planned, has argued that AS Roma’s decision to drop the project cannot be accepted.
The Italian Serie A football club announced on Friday that it had dropped plans for a new 52,500-seat home in the Tor di Valle neighbourhood of Rome. The club said the decision was made by the board of directors and it came after a change in ownership at Roma last year.
The project, which was the vision of former Roma owner James Pallotta, was first put forward in February 2012 but was hit by a number of delays. In August, US billionaire Dan Friedkin agreed a deal to purchase the club from Pallotta in a deal worth around €591m (£511m/$711m).
In October, the stadium project took a fresh twist as Italian financial services company UniCredit approved the sale of the group of companies controlled by Italian businessman Luca Parnasi to CPI Property Group, a Luxembourg-headquartered commercial real estate owned by Czech billionaire Radovan Vitek.
At the time, it was reported that CPI would play €250m for Capital Dev, Parsitalia and Eurnova. The latter owns the land in the Tor di Valle district, valued at around €50m, on which the Stadio della Roma and an associated business park was proposed to be built.
It was said that the development would make it easier for the Municipality of Rome to give the official green light to the project but Roma’s new owners have ultimately opted to drop the plans.
Eurnova has now argued that Roma’s agreement was binding and that the club cannot back out of the project.
In a letter to Roma Capitale’s Department of Urban Planning, Eurnova has requested that Roma’s request to drop the project be rendered “completely ineffective”.
Eurnova’s letter, which has been reported by Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, added: “On the private level, (Roma’s) request to consider the commitments undertaken no longer binding and/or ineffective and/or no longer current is not based on any law.
“All the more reason, Roma Capitale is asked not to proceed with the reckless request of AS Roma to take all the necessary and appropriate measures to definitively terminate the procedure relating to the project.”
Roma currently shares the Stadio Olimpico with cross-city rival Lazio.
Image: AS Roma
Share this